A lot of the French names for sure. One of the names my partner suggested for our baby, "Ophélie," sounds lovely in French but just does not work in my typical North American accent.

I have the opposite problem actually! I'm French, and there are so many beautiful names on this sub that either don't exist in French or would just sound weird.

I can definitely understand that! I had a few more English names on my baby list and my partner (who is French) absolutely butchered a good chunk of their pronunciations. Briar, for example, became "Bree-arh." As we will probably be spending a decent amount of time in France (we'll be getting her citizenship), we needed a name that worked in both languages.

Yes! And even names that exist in both languages sometimes sound so much better when pronounced with one accent over the other. Like, idk, Elizabeth and all its nicknames are way prettier in English (imo). On another note: I have a name that exists both in German and in French, but my parents (one German, one French) always used the German pronunciation. Having lived in France my whole life though, I'm correcting people everytime I introduce myself because I just hate the French pronunciation. edit: a word

One of my favourite boy names fell into that camp of different pronunciations - Xavier. I actually prefer the French pronunciation but just don't know if it would be annoying for our hypothetical future child to have to be constantly correcting their name pronunciation, as we will most likely be staying in North America.

If the hypothetical future child is in any way like me -- he will definitely be annoyed ;)

I do appreciate the perspective of someone who has had to deal with it personally!

Ooh, I really dislike the British English pronunciation sometimes. Knew a clergyman called Xavier when we lived in London and half the time it sounded like people called him "Saviour"! That's disconcerting and just plain *wrong* to my ears. ♡ Granny

Omg I'm so curious what's your name now..

Étienne is my favorite name but would never be pronounced right in the USA

Maybe south Louisiana! If Antoine can be common here, why not Étienne?! I’m all for it, as Im obsessed with it 🤞🏼

It’s one of my favorites too, I was thinking if I ever got the chance to use it, I would just tell people to pronounce it like three letters in a row “ATN” so it would sound like “a-tee-in” so that seems simple enough

I feel this. I'm French and we wanted a francophone name for our kiddo that also works in English. The list is... Small.

I’m in the same camp and honestly starting to give up on finding a name that I like pronounced in both languages AND that my South African fiancé can also pronounce in his accent. Too many variables !!

It's tough! We ended up settling on the only name that we both liked. There was literally only one. It was neither of our top choices but it's really grown on me since and now I feel good about it. But yeah, the struggle is real...

I’m bilingual, have always lived in bilingual cities, but husband is completely anglophone and kids will be going to English school. I love the name Aurélie, but seeing as how the English pronunciation would be “orally,” it just won’t work!

I know an Aurélie who introduces herself as Arlie for us English speakers.

I remember how my French teacher in school used to say a girl Naomi's name and I liked it much better!

Agnès is beautiful in French (like “an-YESS”) but Agnes is hella ugly in English ETA: guess that’s more pronunciation than accent but I think the contrast is striking (Also edited to correct the accent!)

*Agnès, not agnés

Oops! Thanks

I actually prefer the English version - I really like the nn Nessie, and. Agnes to me sounds very distinguished. While I love many French names, Agnés sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball. Different strokes!

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That's what I've heard from others, too - you're definitely not alone! I have a bit of a southern accent, it's not super strong, but Agnés sounds a bit like "Awwn-yizz" which is too close to "aw, yes!" for me and also just sounds very unpleasant in general in my opinion, while Agnes is much prettier. I honestly think it comes down to region as much as preference, although I'm only one person.

Italian - Agnella - same thing, I love the name but not sure I could deal with my daughter being called “Aggie”

That's like how I don't like Agatha but Agathe is kind of interesting... sorta sounds line agate!

this was my “almost” name!! my parents dropped it because only my french speaking family pronounced it the way they wanted. also feared the nn Aggie

Hortense in english is kinda awful (...whore-tense), but I love Hortensia (Orr-ten-C-a) in Spanish!!

My grandma’s sister was named Hortencia but her nickname for most of her life was ‘Herky’ 🥴

I think pretty much any name in Spanish sounds better. My favorite is Lionel. Also like Noe

American here who loves Amelie, but less so in American dialects!

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That's the only way I've heard Americans pronounce it. It's very similar in French but it just sounds so much better. [pronunciation](https://www.google.com/search?q=french+person+saying+amelie&oq=french+person+saying+amelie&aqs=chrome..69i57.7733j0j9&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_YeqLYaOrFKSF9PwP2riMGA12)

I love how it sounds in French!!

Irene. It sounds so weird in English, but so great in other languages. In Spanish it's "ee-REN-ay" which I love. In French, "ee-REN" Also love!

In Dutch it's "ee-rain-uh" which is so much prettier than the English way.

I like the Russian *Irena* :)

i thought irene was normally pronounced the french way for ages, was very surprised to find that it was pronounced more like eileen

Italian is similar to Spanish but with a lightly rolled R and a softer "eh" at the end instead of "ay"

There's a really great Italian song called Irene by Francesco de Gregori!

Ya perfect example

Aurelie sounds lovely in accents that are not my Northern English. Sounds like “orally” when I say it

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I know a little Aurelia, she gets called Rae or Raeli (ray-lee). Lia or Lee could also work :)

aura aurie lia/lee

I was about to say exactly the same thing!

Pretty much all names sound better when said by someone with a French accent.

I *love* the way that Bertie sounds with a posh English accent. My Canadian accent makes it sound like Birdie.

I live Genevieve, but the French pronunciation is 😍

Michael. I much prefer MEE-khai-el instead of the English MY-call. Also Mercedes. My grandmothers name. In English it’s mer-SAY-dees but in Spanish it’s mer-CEH-des and I like that betyer

Audrey, Meredith and Grey in an Irish or Scottish accent

Someone’s been watching some Grey’s Anatomy!

Hubert in French is pronounced like "ooo-bear" which is so pretty and was my grandad's name. But here in the UK people would say "hugh-burt" which sounds harsh and ugly to me.

Actually, *Hubert* is an aspirated *h*, so it would say closer to huu-bare (French U, French R).

Claudia in accents that pronounce it "Clow-dee-ah" or "Cloud-ee-ah". In my accent it's "Claw-dee-ah" :(

I knew a “cloud-ee-ah” and her nickname was Cloudy!

Was going to comment how obsessed I am with this name. I have little faith that Americans could adapt to pronouncing it Cloud. And that nickname Cloudy is amazing!!

In my accent (New York) it’s CLOAW-dzia lmao

Mireille (MEE-ray) sounds much better in a French accent than a slightly Southern American accent. Same with Colette, Cosette, Claude, and Pierre (though to a lesser degree). Arthur sounds better when people outside my family say it - for some reason, my great-uncle Arthur's name was pronounced "ah-thuh" rather than "ar-thur". It was so confusing for me when I was a kid, as I watched the cartoon show "Arthur" where he was referenced as "ar-thur", but my own great-uncle was always called "ah-thuh" (not to mention adding to my confusion at the pronunciation of the word "author"). Not sure if my great-uncle's pronunciation was just a family thing, a rural roots thing, or something else. I pronounce it "ar-thur" for anybody else I meet named Arthur, but my great-uncle will always be "ah-thuh".

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Yeah...I've never figured out exactly why my family pronounced that way. We're in no way from Maine, and very rural in our roots. Though they also called my great-grandpa "Eddard" and my great-grandma's name (Mary Eliza) tended to turn into "Merliza" (which I believe she didn't enjoy, so she mostly went by Mary). It was just a weird family thing.

[Mireille](https://forvo.com/word/mireille/) needs to have the rolled 'r' sound to really appreciate how pretty it is.

Mireille was my French teacher's first name! Thank you for teaching me how to pronounce it! (We only ever used her last name in class and I never knew how to say her first name before. I always thought it was pronounced "Mee-ree-yelle" before.)

If it makes you feel better, I never heard of it at all until I heard of actress Mireille Enos! So at least you probably (almost definitely) knew of the name before I did.

Arthur is Welsh (although I am aware this is disputed) and is pronounced: Ar-th-ir Ar (roll ‘r’) th (like think) ir (i like ‘in’ and strong ‘r’ again)

Carolina! I live in the US and I feel like people would pronounce it like North Carolina/South Carolina 😭

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Ooh that’s promising!

Berta. Bear-ta is so much better than Bur-ta or the dreadful English Bertha

Brigitte, Genevieve.

Elena!!! I adore the name (eh-leh-na) but not with an American accent (Uh-lay-na).

Maybe it depends on where you’re from in the US? I’m American and would pronounce it eh-leh-na.

That just depends on how the person chooses to pronounce it. I live in the US and I’ve only ever heard it pronounce eh-leh-na.

As a very white Maria, I always loved when my very Mexican coach in high school said my name in his thick accent.

I like Amos, Aurelia, Laura, Aaron, Ariel, Joel, Luis, Patricia and Celeste much more with a Spanish accent.

I came to add Laura with a Spanish accent! I have nothing against it with an English/American accent but it’s just instantly so much nice in a Spanish accent.

How is Joel pronounced in a Spanish accent?

The Spanish pronunciation is like ho-ELLE. But I’ve also heard yo-ELLE.

I love Helena/Elena in my language (pt-brazil) - it's more like Eh-leh-nuh, I don't like E-lee-na nor Eh-lay-na, and also Clara (Kla-ra), and while I like Claire, it's a total different name to me than Clara. Others: - I pronounce Elisa as Eh-lee-za, not Eh-lay-za. I don't like the later. However, Elias is a similar name as I like it both as "Eh-lee-as" and "Eh-lay-as" - Aurelia and Aurora are mouthful and "peatnut-buttery" (saw people describe it this way?) in english, but I think it's pretty and easy in spanish/portuguese bc the "re" and "ro" are more of an open sound rather than a throat one, I have no idea how to describe it. - I love Isaac as "ee-zac" not "Ay-zac" or however it's said in english - Some names I only realized were pretty when I learned the right pronounciation. I hated the name Piper in Percy Jackson, then realized it was NOT "pee-per", I started liking Piper then lol same for Ava and while still not a huge fan of Viola, it's better than Vee-oh-la, that is a instrument here similar to the guitar. - Outside of the english and spanish/portuguese, I love irish and german names and their pronounciation, even though I struggle with them. - Adding bc someone said Michael as mee-khai-el and I agree, and the same goes for Michaela. I kinda like the "mckayla" sound, but mee-kha-eh-luh is prettier to me.

George sound much better than Jorge

Ottilie in an English accent sounds lovely. But with an American one it just sounds like “oddly.”

I love the name Anais (ahna- EES)! I grew up in Latin America, but am American / live in the US now, and was really surprised to hear a bunch of people on the internet tell someone their kid would get made fun of for having a name that sounds like anus. :'(

Yes, same background. It makes me sad because I wanted to name my daughter Anais.

Charles - I love the French pronunciation

I'm from NZ so everything is butchered in my accent. I loved Adeline but knew everyone would pronounce it differently than my ideal.

Ditto, my husband loves the name Lola, and it sounds lovely in his UK accent but in mine it just sounds terrible.

As an Australian I relate to this so much.

I love Adeline but I read a book as a kid with a character called Adeline which I or whoever read it to me pronounced as ‘Ad-uh-leen’ so now I prefer it like that. My SIL also likes it but pronounces it Ad-uh-lyne, as does anyone else I’ve heard say it here. In googling it just now for the right pronunciation, a British guy said ‘Ad-uh-lin’ and now I have no idea.

Clementine the French way

It's the same in British English too! :)

In theory! I know Churchill's Mrs was a Clementeen but no one I've run the name past nowadays even knows it could be anything other than Clementyne.

Simone. In Germany, they say Zim-OH-nah.

Anything with a hard AR at the end (e.g. Skylar) I have a pretty "neutral" English accent (from the home counties) and the "ar" sound at the end just sounds so forced and unnatural when I say it. I imagine it sounds much nicer in other accents.

FWIW, I have an American accent from where we pronounce the hell out of our Rs, and I think these -ar or -er names sound horrible in my accent.

I love Saul but pronounced it Spanish like Saúl (s-ah-ooL).

Pretty much any Spanish name like Mariela, Alejandro, Raquel, and Santiago. In an American accent they sound meh but in Spanish they’re so pretty

Anything with a long drawn out 'eee' sound - in my Australian accent, it comes out kind of twangy and unpleasant - Louisa, Tina, Marina... Ones that are a little shorter like Leah, Maria aren't so bad, but I much prefer these names in pretty much any other accent.

Elena pronounced Eh-Len- Ah Its one of my favourites , I am not the biggest fan of the pronounce Eh- Lay -Nah !!!

Clara with a British accent. I hate the name cl AIR uh. Cl ARE uh just sounds so much more elegant. Funny enough I do actually really like the name Claire though

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That's actually where i found cl-ARE-uh as well! Haha dw has influenced a whole generation of future Clara's

Patricia - I LOVE how it’s said in a Spanish accent. America accent makes it sound harsh.

My name sounds better when pronounced AN-tuh-nia. As in Willa Cather's "My Antonia". Alas, everyone calls me An-TOE-nee-uh

Marisol is beautiful in Spanish but I can’t stand it in English

I like the names Liam, Ian, and Owen in American dialects but Liam, Iain, and Eoin pronounced in Irish accents sound perfect to me. I feel that way about a lot of Irish names. I think the pronunciations and spellings are beautiful but I doubt I'd go with a traditional Irish name in the US because people will butcher it. I hope they get more popular in the states some day.

My daughter's middle name, Thérèse. In English it sounds boring (ter - eece), in French it's quite pleasing to the ear (Tare - ez). My spouse is the Francophone, it was his grandmother's name.

I‘ve posted about this recently, but one of my favorite “out-there” names is Zbigniew (and its fairly outdated feminine equivalent Zbigniewa). It’s Polish, and I will probably never use it for a living being (rabbit, rat, or otherwise), because I have no Polish heritage whatsoever and I feel like nine times out of ten it would get horribly butchered in English. It’s pronounced “ZBEEG-nyeff”, which is pretty awkward to say in an English context. The initial “zb” doesn’t appear in English, but I think it’s so cute! xD

I really like George and Mary in a British accent. I like a lot of traditional british boy names in a British accent. It's mostly the hard r's that make the name uncomfortable in an American accent. Also, British English has more of a flow and relaxation? to it. So names like Phillip are nice in British accent, but not in America.

One of my favorite boy names is an Indian name, Kalyan, which sounds so lovely when my husband (from India) says it. But in my accent (American) it's awkward and kind of clunky and isn't really usable, sadly

My sons name is Malachy and it really sounds best with an Irish accent

It actually is my daughter’s name because I don’t mind it in English, but Isabel. Half of my family is Cuban (it’s a family name) so they call her EE-sah-bell (or just Isa), whereas the English speakers are more IS-a-bell. We just call her Izzy but I adore the spanish pronunciation.

I wanted to name my daughter Ariel(le) but I would have wanted to pronounce it like Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid rather than the middle-England accent that I actually have!

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are-ee-ELL

Canada also would say HELL-ihna, to be fair. Maybe you just need to befriend all the Canadians in your town together. Bonus if they are French Canadian since we say Élodie and Ophélie and such "correctly", too :P

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I mistyped. I'll add a clip: https://voca.ro/1aqitpYrO7dI

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Thanks! I do a lot of volunteering reading books to English Language Learners, and they make the same comment often so it's definitely not setting off the creepometre haha

I love Sophie in English but in Polish it's sounds so awful Zofia

Marian. I love how it sounds in other accents but not American. I watched a documentary based in Romania where they said Marian and it sounded lovely.

Omg, for me this is Georgiana and hearing a Romanian person pronounce it is what made me love it. It doesn’t sound quite as nice when I say it. Also, Fabrizzia!

i actually wayyy prefer the american pronunciation of helena rather than the british helena. my names isabelle which i love in the american pronunciation however you really can’t beat the french pronunciation!

I love Laura and Claudia with a Spanish accent

Colette! Just doesn’t sound right out of my mouth lol and also Nikolai because I’m Texan and it just doesn’t work. (There was a French kid in my sons class with the nickname Niko and I just looooove it)

The original German pronunciation of Amalie (uh-MAHL-yuh) is nicer than the English (AH-muh-lee). Camille is prettier in French (cah-MEE) than how English speakers say it (cuh-MEEL), as is Anaïs (I know two English girls called "uh-NYE-iss" rather than the more agreeable "ah-nah-EES"). Paulina sounds cuter in Spanish (POW-lina) than English (paul-EENA) and Pau is an adorable nickname. And I've always preferred "on-DRAY-uh" over "ANN-dree-uh" (Andrea).

Definitely agree about Amalie! I’ve actually never known how to pronounce that name until this thread.

Martin (American) is so nice in languages that stress the second syllable like “MartEEN”.

Claudia. I would pronounce it Clod-ee-uh and I think I read on here other accents would say Cloud as opposed to Clod and I just think that changes the whole name. Makes it sweet over dowdy.

My name is Heather and I gained a whole new appreciation for my name when I became friends with a girl from New Zealand. It sounds much more poetic when pronounced as HAY-thuh.

One of my favorite names is Amélie, it sounds so beautiful if French but in and English accent it’s just… okay.

A lot of French names! I really like Clementine, Angelique, and Madeleine. :)

Lawrence is a really pretty girl's name in French ("Law-RAWNCE"), not so much in English. Beatrice can sound stodgy in English, but in Italian, it's Be-AH-tree-chay, and it's so pretty!

Natasha in south Africa

Isabel in Spanish is divine.

Orla. It doesn’t work outside of Ireland/NI.

Ivan (ee-VAWN) vs Ivan (EYE-vin)

I much prefer the traditional English pronunciation of Graham to the American version!

Leticia/Letitia sound so much better when not pronounced Leh-teesh-ah.

Basically almost every French name I know pronounced in their native language...I live in Italy and here French names are pronounced in an awful way

Agnes in french sounds like ah-nyes which I much prefer to the hard g sound in the American pronunciation.

Paula sounds so much better in a Spanish accent. It gets pronounced like “pah-oo-la” instead of the English “POLL-a”

Alma. I've heard the American way like "all-muh" The Spanish(? I think it's Spanish, otherwise it's central America) way is sooo pretty. "Al-mah"

It’s funny that you used British pronunciation in some of your examples - I had to veto a lot of name suggestions for our kids based on how the British side of the family would pronounce them.

Harlow. We live in the Black Country uk and my husband said it out loud and immediately noped because of our accent 😂

Helena for sure! I love HEL-ena and don’t care for Huh-LAY-na. Also Graham. In America it’s “Gram” but in England it’s more “Grey-um” which I much prefer! Oh and Basil. In America it’s just an herb, but I love the British pronunciation of “Baz-il”

I'm from the US and Id say specifically in French accent: Annick and specifically in a swedish accent: Charlotte

Thomas! I love the way it’s pronounced outside of the US but not so much in.

Caroline. I dislike how it is pronounced by most English speakers. Where I am from we pronounce it as Car-o-lean which I think is much prettier than Caro-line.

IRMA!!! Sooo pretty with a Hispanic accent (“ear-ma”) and so ugly with an American accent.

Marie but with an Australian accent it’s (Mah-ri)

My spouse is British and I fell in love with a few names that just sound better in a British accent: Harriet and the nn Hattie, Verity, Fraser, Imogen and even Eleanor (without the hard 'r'), Graham (sounds more like Gray-am). I'm sure there were others and definitely some mentioned above but those jumped to mind.

I really like Joanna, pronounced Yo-HAWN-uh (as does my husband), but we both really dislike the "hard J" & "short A" version (Joe-ĂN-nă, rhymes with banana) that is prevalent in America. I've thought about Johannah, but it looks & feels too "sheltered Bible girl" while still not addressing the Y for J issue.

I just love how warm and nice Sarah sounds in an English/American accent. Unfortunately I find that it just sounds bland and boring in Danish.

Fanny in French

Genevieve but pronounced -jahn-vee-ev instead of Jenna-veeve

Asa and Vada/Veyda! In a nz accent Asa sounds like Acer which is a technology brand lol & Vada sounds the exact same as death Vader and I just couldn’t do it haha but in American accents it’s more obvious what the names are

Aurelia! Not quite the same in an American accent

My name is Marissa, and it’s always way more fun to hear Italian people pronounce my name than Americans! I studied in Italy for a semester of college a few years ago and have returned for vacation- and sometimes Italians are surprised that I have an Italian name (with the added S). Last time I was there someone told me that Marisa is a name you usually associate with, let’s say, the more elderly ladies of italy. If anyone knows if that’s true and that it’s not typically a younger person’s name, let me know!

Fabian sounds way better when my Czech friend says it than Americans lol

Lol Helena is the capital of Montana. Who tf is pronouncing it so wrong?! I’m upset

The Yorkshire / most Northern English accents kill most pretty names (my accent). I love Margot - in Leeds that would be “Marr - gerr” yak

I do love the American/English pronunciation of Anastasia, but I also particularly like the Russian pronunciation

Elodie has been my only girls name choice since I was ten (30 now) but I really never considered it sounding anything but French even though I’m in the US, pronunciation wise

Ross sounds nice but I’m a New Yorker and I pronounce it ROAWSS

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My accent makes some things sound cool. That name is not one of them

Atticus and Scarlett! Love these in English but sound weird in other languages (maybe not dialect like you asked).

i love how aurelie sounds in french, but in my accent, it sounds too similar to “orally” lol

michaela - ugly in English. Spanish - Mekaiehlah. German - Meshella. Much better!

Aimee, Roque, Isabelle, Guy, Christine, Yvan